On Wednesday, July 27, the El Paso city council held a
special meeting to decide the fate of Savannah and Juno, our two zoo
elephants. Despite the logical arguments presented to support sending them
to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, our city council voted unanimously
to keep them in the zoo. It was obvious that most of them had their minds
made up before the presentations even began.

The council chamber is divided into two sections and the
"keep our elephants in the zoo" faction had only slightly more people than
the "retire them" section. They were wearing incongruous signs around
their necks saying "Save Our Elephants," hey, we want to save the
elephants, too, you losers. It used to be in the old days, that Animal
Rights Activists wore signs and carried banners, they looked pretty stupid
compared to our side. I was told that zoo employees and volunteers were
urged to go to the meeting and that employees received paid time off to
attend. I wonder if they got more pay for wearing a stupid sign around
their neck? Did they possibly equate that with the chains most zoo
elephants wear during the night? Somehow I doubt it.

The speakers for the "keep them in cages" faction argued
that outside agitators should not be allowed to determine city policy in
El Paso and that they had gathered 9 thousand signatures on petitions to
keep the elephants. Jane Poss, cofounder of Concerned Citizens for
Savannah and Juno, pointed out that we weren't outside agitators, but were
citizens of El Paso and constituents of our elected representatives. Jane
told them that we had given them 3 thousand names on petitions to retire
the elephants and that an additional 6 thousand postcards expressing that
sentiment had been thrown away by the previous mayor when he left office a
few months ago.

One city council representative said that he was upset
that this issue was getting world-wide attention on a number of animal
rights websites and that he had gotten emails from around the world. He
said in effect that he wished we had been able to keep a lid on this issue
and solve the problem locally. He said that PeTA endorsed the work of The
Elephant Sanctuary, his attempt to try to equate the sanctuary with a
known "animal rights terrorist" group that has lost some popularity
lately. I have news for you, Mr. Representative, people all over the world
who are concerned about elephants in captivity are watching El Paso and
you won't be able to keep our treatment of elephants a secret.

Carol Buckley, one of the founders of The Elephant
Sanctuary, informed the council that of all the elephants who die in
captivity, three out of every four die or are euthanized due to chronic
foot infections, the kind of problems that plague both Savannah and Juno.
When these creatures are euthanized in the foreseeable future because of
conditions at their 7/10 of an acre enclosure are not improved, the world
will still be watching, and yes, Mr. Representative, you will have another
flood of email. Get Ready for it.

A little over a year ago the Detroit Zoo made the
decision, for ethical reasons, to close their elephant exhibit and retire
their elephants to a sanctuary. In March, the San Francisco Zoo made the
same move. The Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago was urged to send its three
elephants to a sanctuary, but they refused. Within the last year, all
three elephants died, two from tuberculosis and one from "old age." She
was in her early fifties, elephants live past 70 in the wild. Since then,
the elephant exhibit in Chicago has been closed and hopefully will not
reopen.

One really dumb city council member suggested that we
animal rights people are only in it for the money, that The Elephant
Sanctuary is a booming business that takes in over a million dollars a
year in donations. How absurd and stupid. All the donations to the
sanctuary go towards care for the elephants and advocacy and education.
This city council member even had the audacity to complain that people
couldn't visit the elephants at The Elephant Sanctuary, as if that should
be a right of us humans, and that the sanctuary didn't have a breeding
program.

Carol Buckley pointed out that there are too many captive
elephants in deplorable conditions around the country and that breeding
them in sanctuaries is not a good idea. If you want to save the species,
work with programs to save them in their home habitat.

The Sanctuary is a place to let elephants learn how to be
elephants again and to be with others of their kind. It is not a place for
humans to gawk at them. Zoo officials argued that they are saving
endangered species by keeping the elephants. Both Savannah and Juno are
females unable to bear offspring, how is this preserving the species? El
Paso Zoo has become a place to retire elephants from other zoos and circus
elephants to die.

The El Paso Zoo is listed as one of the top ten worst zoos
for elephants by In Defense of Animals. Zoos across the country are coming
under increased scrutiny because of their treatment of these intelligent
creatures. Our fight isn't over yet. Animal advocates in El Paso will
continue to monitor this situation and to advocate for change. We have
increased awareness in our city, by a little bit, about the conditions for
elephants at our zoo. I just hope we don't have to tell our elected
officials "We told you so."

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